In a fixed Ethernet Switch, stacking busses are becoming a popular means to interconnect switches that are physically stacked on top of each other. The stacking bus serves as a higher performance and lower cost way to interconnect fixed Ethernet Switches than using a standard interface.
Prior implementations of stacking buses include either dedicated stack ports on the fixed switch, or, in the case of, for example, the GigaStack bus, manufactured by the assignee of the present application, a module that plugs into a standard GBIC port.
However, each implementation has disadvantages. The use of dedicated stack ports consumes valuable space on a rack or box that cannot be used for network ports. The use of modules adds cost, may take up additional space, and requires that the modules be available when a stack is required, which is not always the case.